Donald Leslie Edy (1917 - 2017)

Biography

• Don lived an adventure many young men had hoped for, piloting his beloved Hawker Hurricane with RAF No. 33 Fighter Squadron in the Western Desert. In a book he chronicles not only their missions, including Operation Crusader, but a spirit of life, camaraderie and loss, at North Africa Landing Grounds. GOON IN THE BLOCK by Don Edy, chronicling the historic WWII experiences of a young RCAF Pilot Officer.

• Don was born on July 26, 1917. He married Millie Jane Wright Carr on August 11, 1945 shortly after being released from Prisoner of War Camp. They had five children: Leslie Jane, Robert Donald Cyrus, Derek Rowland, Thomas Carr and Barbara Elaine.

• If our Saxon forebears considered a perfect man to have the qualities of both warrior and poet, then Don meets their requirements. During World War II, Don was a fighter pilot officer, flying Hurricanes over North Africa against the Germans. A warrior. He was eventually shot down over the Sahara Desert and taken prisoner of war. His many interesting adventures during the war, such as taking off from the deck of the aircraft carrier, The Ark Royal, to ferry planes to Africa, strafing enemy convoys in the desert, being shot down, having the prisoner of war ship being torpedoed and ending up clinging to a plank in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, being rescued and taken to Italy before ending up in Stalag Luft III in Germany's Black Forest are all detailed in his book, "Goon In The Block". A writer, therefore a Poet.

• For most of his life, Don worked as a salesman for such companies as Somerville's and Hendershot Paper Products, as well as selling Insurance at one point. Eventually he started a Gas Bar which evolved into the Chimo Dairy Bar. It is my belief that he probably enjoyed his last job best, working for Bob Martin, since working in a Pro Golf Shop is akin to letting a child loose in a candy store. Don is an avid golfer; and an excellent Bridge player. (Source: Jane (Edy) Hughes)

Census Data

• 1921 Canadian Census - 306 Oxford St., London, Ontario^[1]

• • Cyrus Eddy - 37 (1884) b. Ontario; o. Salesman; Earnings: $1500

• • Florence Eddy - 36 (1885) b. Ontario

• • Marjory Eddy -10 (1911) b. Ontario

• • Robert Eddy - 6 (1915) b. Ontario

• • Donald Eddy - 3 (1918) b. Ontario

• • Freland Schroeder (female lodger) - 18 (1903) b. Ontario; o. Stenographer; Earnings: $600

Newspaper Clipping

• Great Escape jacket sent home by former PoW
• By Megan Stacey, The London Free Press
• Friday, July 25, 2014

• LONDON, Ont. -- At first, it was all a big game. An adventure.

• In 1944, air force pilot Donald Edy listened from his bunk in a German prisoner of war camp as 76 men slipped into the mouth of a hand-dug tunnel. More than 200 men planned a mass escape from the “inescapable” Stalag Luft III camp in eastern Germany.

• It was the Great Escape.

• For prisoners of war hatching plans to regain their freedom passed the time and fulfilled a sense of adventure. It was a carefully choreographed routine, Edy said.

• “You try to escape, you get caught, or maybe you get out. You get brought back, spend a week or two weeks in the cooler, the camp prison. And back into the camp. It was a great adventure.”

• At least that was the dance played by prisoners and guards until March 24, 1944, the night of the Great Escape, when so many prisoners planned to begin their journey into underground tunnels and outside the camp boundaries to freedom.

• Edy wasn’t part of the escape efforts -- he said he knew it was doomed for failure and wasn’t sorry to be left behind that night.

• “I didn’t figure they’d get very far. And of course, most of them didn’t,” he said in an interview in his room at Richmond Woods, a retirement home in north London, Ont.

• Edy and the rest of the PoWs at Stalag Luft III saw the remains of 50 escapees delivered to the camp a short while later.

• Their deaths were to serve as a lesson to the other PoWs.

• “Hitler was furious,” Edy said. “He wanted to shoot every last one of them.”

• The belongings of those killed in the Great Escape went up for auction in the PoW camp. Proceeds were to go to the families of the men who were shot.

• Edy was looking for something to wear to the theatre when he bought British fighter pilot Thomas Kirby-Green’s jacket.

• “Ever since I was shot down I was just in battle dress. I kind of wanted to dress up,” Edy said.

• The PoWs were surprisingly willing actors, directors and stage crew, launching the Sagan Theatre from within the walls of the camp.

• “I was in quite a few of the productions myself,” Edy said.

• He wanted to look sharp for his on-stage appearances and trips to the theatre.

• He paid for the jacket by sending a letter to Barclays Bank in England, asking for money to be wired from his account to another.

• Edy wore the jacket during his time being shuttled to other PoW camp and it kept him warm during the Forced March, when 80,000 Allied PoWs were evacuated by marching across Europe in the winter of 1945.

• When he finally returned home to Canada, Edy wore the jacket at his wedding in August 1945.

• Reuniting the jacket with the family of Kirby-Green is another tale of the power of the Internet.

• Colin Kirby-Green, who was only eight when his father was killed, was at an anniversary event for the Great Escape.

• He discovered a young Canadian pilot purchased his father’s jacket for 100 pounds in a PoW auction.

• Though Kirby-Green didn’t yet know the man was Don Edy, he began searching online and eventually connected with Edy’s daughter.

• The 96-year-old Edy has a larger Internet presence than many veterans. His daughter, Barb Edy, corresponds with people all around the world on her father’s behalf, becuase she runs the website for Edy’s book, Goon in the Block, which recounts his military days.

• Kirby-Green’s correspondence with Edy’s daughter was the first indication Edy’s old PoW acquaintance even had a family.

• “I didn’t even know Tom was married,” Edy said. “I never even gave it a thought.”

• Edy wrote in a letter to Kirby-Green: “I knew your father in Stalag Luft III, not intimately, but as an acquaintance. He was tall, friendly and very handsome.”

• Learning about the connection gave Don Edy an idea. Why not return the jacket -- carefully tucked away in a closet -- to Kirby-Green’s son in England?

• “Would be more use to him than it was to me. And of course it was,” Edy said.

• After about 90 days in transit and $90 in customs fees, Kirby-Green was reunited with his father’s jacket this month.

• “I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Don and only wish I could thank him in person,” Kirby-Green wrote in a letter to Edy and his daughter.

• Edy’s other daughter, Jane Hughes, said it’s one of the only items Kirby-Green has from his father’s life.

• After the final leg of a journey spanning centuries, battles and continents, the light blue air force uniform is finally home.

Sources

• WikiTree profile Edy-35 created through the import of Haviland-Descendants.ged on Feb 10, 2012 by Graeme MacKay. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Graeme and others.

1. ↑ Reference Number: RG 31; Folder Number: 71; Census Place: Ward 4, London, Ontario; Page Number: 13.